Unlike animals in the wild, you are responsible for ensuring your pet is provided with the correct type of nutrients.

Animals in the wild are able to fend for themselves. These animals can kill prey, eat plant life such as grass, and drink from streams filled with minerals. Animals can get all they need from nature. When an animal does not, it will die, which is all considered to be a part of natural selection. The strongest or fittest animals survive over those who are weaker.

Domesticated animals, our pets, have a far better life.

They get to avoid the survival of the fittest routine. Pets get the nutrients they require from the food, treats, and vet care we provide as owners.

We, as pet owners, are able to ensure muscle tone, body condition, skin and hair health, digestion and elimination health, and work towards immunity and prevention of most diseases that ail domesticated animals.

The pets we care for have longer lives than their counterparts in the wild, in most instances, due to better health.

This is why nutrition is vital for pets; it comes down to keeping our family members alive.

If you withhold proper nutrition or do not take care of an ailing pet, they will die. For longevity and the love of your pet, you want to ensure they have nothing but the best nutrition from their food, supplements, treats, and vet care.

2.1 Muscle Tone & Body Condition
Your pet's cells are made up of protein.

This might sound familiar if you have ever taken a biology course or physiology course. Protein is paramount to your pet's skin, hair, organs, muscles, and tissues. Protein also helps repair damaged cells and is part of the process of making new cells. If you want your dog or cat to have a long life, they will need protein to form muscles and keep the body in an overall healthy condition.

Young, growing, and pregnant animals especially need a healthy, protein-filled diet.

Protein is used to build and maintain muscles that help your pet walk, play, wag its tail, or move.

A poor protein diet might also lead to a higher potential for your pet to break a bone. Unfortunately, with pets, it is hard to tell when they are not feeling that good. You may notice a change in behavior, but this change can be attributed to so many things besides a broken bone. If a small bone breaks or slips out of place due to a deteriorating muscle, your vet may not be able to feel it on an initial examination. Protein can help with this. It is the basic nutrient your pets need. It is also why, on the pet food labels, as discussed in the previous module, the first ingredient or three are usually related to protein.

Pound for pound, cats need twice the protein humans and dogs do. Source: pets.webmd.com

2.2 Skin & Hair Coat Health

Your pet has a natural way to keep their hair and skin healthy: grooming.

Grooming is used to spread saliva that is filled with protective nutrients along the hair and skin to help keep the coat and skin of your animal healthy. Grooming is also a way to remove any dirt, insects, excess hair, or other foreign objects from your pet's coat. However, if your cat or dog is not in good health, there will be an issue. Your pet may not be in the mood to groom, which will start to show in their hair and skin. They may develop diseases based on poor nutrition that appear through a dull coat, loss of hair, or skin irritations. Skin cells can split, fall, or break when the proper nutrients are not provided. Hair can also fall out in patches or in great clumps. Nutrients can be used to prevent this.

Omega-3 fatty acids, which have anti-inflammatory effects, are able to reduce skin itching, irritations, and hair problems that may be caused by a lack of nutrition, allergies, or environmental conditions.

Your pets have skin just like you do, which means low humidity levels in winter can greatly affect the health of your pet's skin and hair. The best way to prevent any skin and hair coat problems is to provide the proper nutrients.

2.3 Digestion & Elimination

Digestion and elimination are tied to each other. Digestion is the breaking down and absorption of the food your pet eats. Because many pets may also chew on grass, their waste, hair, carpet, plastic, or many other objects, you must be intentional about maintaining proper digestive nutrition. You want your pet's body to be in good health so it can pass the items eaten that are not being broken down by stomach acid. You also want your pet to be able to excrete hairball food they have eaten and have a normal operating digestive tract.

When your pet comes into contact with certain parasites, possibly from their food or fleas, your pet's digestion can become affected.

For example, cats and dogs can pick up tapeworms by eating a flea that has been infected. Fleas can carry the tapeworm's larvae or babies. The tapeworm uses its hook-like mouthparts to attach to the wall of the small intestine and feeds on food, fat, protein, and nutrients, thus depriving your pet. This can cause health problems, especially in a young animal, who can suffer from anemia, slow growth, and sometimes intestinal blockage.

Proper nutrition is one way to aid and maintain digestion to avoid parasites. Mammals also have natural parasites, such as skin parasites, intestinal parasites, and others that are meant to be inside or on a mammal. Even humans have skin parasites that can turn into scabies if there is poor hygiene or if an infected person spreads the infected parasite to another. The point is, unless you provide proper nutrition, you could be risking your pet's health and making it impossible for your pet to live a long, healthy, happy life.

Digestion is how the food is introduced. Feeding contaminated food could lead to digestive health issues. If you feed the wrong food, such as food with by-products or too much ash, you could cause harm to your pet through the digestive and elimination process. The wrong nutrients will build up in the liver and kidneys, which both function to take food and nutrients eaten by your pet, break them down, keep the essential nutrients, and process the waste. Crystals in the urine occur because the kidneys are unable to process the waste. Crystals form and then need to be transported out of the body. This is done through urine elimination. These crystals are sharp, which means they can cut the urinary tract. When a cut happens, it can get infected, and blood can be found in the urine or stool. An infection makes for an unhappy pet. It can also lead to complications with their health.

Other waste that is eliminated is solid.

How solid it is will help you determine the health of your animal. Your animal might have diarrhea, which can result from improper nutrients. Your pet may not be able to handle rich foods, or it may not have enough grain to bind the waste. This is not only uncomfortable for your pet, as it would be for you, but it is also not a pleasant scent.

The opposite can happen when there is not enough fiber in the food your pet eats. The stool can be extremely hard to pass, causing your pet to strain, which can lead to bleeding in the intestinal tract, infection, and hemorrhoids.

Your pet can have a distended stomach, full bladder, and have a lot of accidents, all due to improper nutrition that is affecting their digestive and elimination system. A stool should be soft, not runny or hard when it is excreted. It should also not have an odious scent that has you running outside just to catch a breath. It means the wrong nutrients are being fed to your animal, or they are not tolerating the nutrient content in the food they receive. You want to avoid giving your pet any food that could lead to an internal infection, disease, or crystals in the urine.

Improper food can also cause other health issues such as heart problems, blood clots, and other illnesses.

2.4 Immunity & the Prevention of Disease

Providing proper nutrition to your pet is key to disease prevention.

A healthy diet filled with protein and nutrients, like vitamins and minerals, is absolutely necessary. Most pets, including dogs and cats, need vitamins and minerals from plants and protein sources. Your pet can become ill with a variety of diseases due to a lack of proper nutrients or a combination of stress and lack of adequate food.

Food can also be the cause of disease. Cholesterol is still a factor in pets. Fatty foods, fast foods, or food prepared for human consumption can all lead to heart health issues. Your pet could have a heart attack, clogged arteries, or organ failure as a result of improper nutrients. Things like chocolate could kill your animal because dogs and cats are intolerant to chocolate.

Prevention of any disease is rooted in what you are going to feed your pet. It is also how immunity will come into the discussion. Certain foods help boost immunity because they include antioxidants and antibiotic properties. Ginger, tea, peppermint, and several fruits and vegetables contain antioxidants that keep you healthy. The same can be said for your pets. There are certain nutrients found in fruits, vegetables, mushrooms, and minerals that boost the immunity of your pet. Without these nutrients, your pet can be more susceptible to disease.

Providing proper food is just the beginning of disease prevention.

Certain treats are also meant for disease prevention and immunity boosts. Dental treats are a great example here.

They contain protein, fiber, and the nutrients your pet needs, as well as ingredients to help keep your pet's teeth clean. When you go to a vet for a visit, your vet may say your pet has a healthy mouth with no plaque on the teeth because you feed your pet dental treats regularly. On the other hand, if you do not use dental treats or foods that help to prevent plaque build-up, you may need to spend more at the vet for proper dental cleaning. There are other ways to get the teeth clean besides treats, such as training your pet to sit while you brush their teeth. The main point is that you should be supplying food that your pet can gain proper nutrients from as a way to prevent gingivitis, tooth decay, bone or gum decay, or mouth sores that could lead to cancer.

Nutrition is extremely important for the reasons stated above. Still, sometimes, there is little you can do to prevent disease or immunity issues.

Some domestic pets are more susceptible to infections, disease, or illness because of their breeding. Inbreeding, where mothers breed with sons or females breed with their male parent, for example, will cause genetic issues. Animals need to have more DNA sources than what is already 50% inside of them to ensure better overall health. If an animal is shown to have a weakness due to a genetic defect that could occur in an offspring, then preventing this pet from breeding is about the only way to prevent their offspring from having the disease or defect. It sounds harsh, but the truth often is.

You can only do so much by providing proper nutrition, love, and overall health care for your pet to keep them healthy for the life they have. It takes a combination of preventative measures to ensure your pet is not exposed to more than it should be.

Part 2 Summary

Your pet is important to you.

Many of us feel like our pets are family members.

A pet's life is certainly shorter than the human life span; however, you want your pet to have the healthiest life possible.

Nutrition is an integral part of keeping your pet healthy for the life they have to live.

While you cannot prevent genetic illnesses or sudden accidents, you can prevent disease and boost immunity in your pet by providing proper nutrients. You can also ensure bone, body, skin, hair, and intestinal health. You can ensure this by providing the appropriate amount of food, nutrients, and care.

Ready to give your furry friend the best nutrition? At Hot Diggity Dog Resort, we offer a carefully curated selection of premium pet foods and homemade treats for dogs, cats, horses, and even humans! Whether you're looking for high-quality kibble, delicious homemade snacks, or specialty diets, we've got you covered. Explore our full range of products and treat your pet to the health and happiness they deserve. Visit our healthy pet foods page for premium pet foods for dogs, cats, horses and even supplements for humans. Before you leave please investigate our top homemade dog treat recipes. Because your pet deserves the best, inside and out!
Finally, check out our Hot Diggity Dog Blog for the other modules in this series on Pet Nutrition at: Blog